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Biodiversity, God's blessing calls us to Care for Creation
Tiny but deadly: Cigarette buttsSeptember 10, 2010 - EARTHDAY.ORG
If I asked you, what is the most common form of plastic pollution, what would you say? Plastic bottles? Straws?
While these are good guesses, they are not the correct answer. Cigarette butts are actually the most abundant form of plastic waste in the world, with about 4.5 trillion individual butts polluting our global environment. But wait, aren’t cigarette butts made of cotton or paper? NO, cigarette butts are primarily plastic. ....READ MORE Urgent action is needed now!
Canadians throw away three million tonnes of plastic each year.
September 3, 2020 - Environmental Defense
Last June, Prime Minister Trudeau announced that Canada would ban certain single-use plastics as early as 2021. But with only four months left in the year, this government is running out of time to keep its promise. TAKE ACTION!
What happened when we all stopped” narrated by Jane Goodal
July 27, 2020
Urge Prime Minister to take urgent and swift measures to address climate emergency - please take actionJune 24, 2020
In celebration of the 5th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, the Joint Ecological Ministry (JEM) called on Catholics across Canada to unite and demand the government “take immediate concrete actions to flatten the curve of global warming and move towards a just and sustainable future.”
We are calling on all Secular Franciscans and their fraternities to support this call on government to act now. Download the model letter that you can use, modify and send to Trudeau. Be sure to add a date at the top and name with signature at the end. (The letter was originally prepared by Catholics United for Climate Action c/o Ministry for Social Justice, Peace, and Creation Care, Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto) We’re making garbage patches on the ocean floor, tooMay 7, 2020 - Ars Technica
Photo: I Kane, 2020
Microplastics are transported in the deep sea by turbidity currents and bottom currents, which concentrate them in hotspots known as sediment drifts. ....read more
Sigh of relief from earth!
Uplifting message from National Geographic.
April 30, 2020 NASA images show a decrease in China's pollutionMarch 3, 2020
The satellite images have detected a significant decreases in nitrogen dioxide over China.
(CNN)Satellite images released by NASA and the European Space Agency reveal that air pollution over China has gone down since the coronavirus outbreak. Production in many factories has been halted and transportation has been restricted to prevent spreading the virus....READ MORE This is an amazing change showing that there is hope! - FVC UPDATE:
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February 10, 2020 - GCCM Canada
Work at an existing tar sands mine. If completed, the Frontier mine would be the largest ever - covering an area twice the size of Vancouver. |
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This megaproject would impact Indigenous communities, derail Canada’s ability to meet our climate targets, and destroy habitats critical for iconic species at risk of extinction. All for the sake of the pocketbooks of a small number of corporate executives.
Read the 8 reasons to reject Tecks new massive tar sand mine - Take Action
Read the 8 reasons to reject Tecks new massive tar sand mine - Take Action
Leaders are moving in the right direction -
Britain to ban the sale of new gas, diesel and hybrid cars - 2035
February 5, 2020 - NBC News
LONDON — Britain will ban the sale of new gas, diesel and hybrid vehicles from 2035, five years earlier than planned, in an attempt to reduce air pollution and fossil fuel emissions, the government announced on Tuesday. READ MORE...
Sobeys to stop using plastic shopping bags - Jan 31, 2020
January 23, 2020 - Global NB
Great news! Thanks Sobeys.
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Creation care cannot be an afterthoughtFour and a half years after the publication of Laudato Si’, Catholic enthusiasm for the environment is still going strong.
At the global level, for example, there is the Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM), an umbrella organization representing over 650 Catholic groups and tens of thousands of individuals from all over the planet. To date, members have hosted hundreds of prayer services; marched by the tens of thousands in mass climate demonstrations; divested millions of dollars from fossil fuel investments (including by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and Caritas agencies in Italy, Singapore, Australia, and Norway); and collected nearly one million signatures on a climate petition that was endorsed by Pope Francis and submitted to GOP leaders at the Paris climate talks. ....READ MORE |
FVC Editor Margaret Ross, ofs, with a sign showing how she tries to #LiveLaudatoSi as a member of A Rocha Canada.
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Climate scientists warn we're on the precipice of disastrous 'tipping points'
November 30, 2019 - CBC Radio
A glacier lagoon is seen in southern Iceland in July 2017. (CNS/Thomson Reuters Foundation/Thin Lei Win)
Slow temperature changes could 'tip over' into catastrophic, fast and irreversible transformation - CBC Radio · Posted: Nov 29, 2019 4:22 PM ET
The world may be teetering on the brink of a potentially irreversible cascade of climate tipping points that scientists say could lead to an "existential threat to civilization."
According to a new commentary published in the prestigious science journal Nature, we are so close to at least one or two of these tipping points — the thresholds beyond which a slow change tips over into big and abrupt planetary transformations — that we can't rule out the process has already begun. Read More.... Listen 9:51 - CBC Radio
The world may be teetering on the brink of a potentially irreversible cascade of climate tipping points that scientists say could lead to an "existential threat to civilization."
According to a new commentary published in the prestigious science journal Nature, we are so close to at least one or two of these tipping points — the thresholds beyond which a slow change tips over into big and abrupt planetary transformations — that we can't rule out the process has already begun. Read More.... Listen 9:51 - CBC Radio
Also see: ‘Bleak’ U.N. Report on a Planet in Peril Looms Over New Climate Talks
from the New York Times
from the New York Times
Ban chlorpyrifos!
November 28, 2019 - Avaaz
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It’s the most dangerous pesticide you’ve never heard of, linked to cancer, brain damage, and nerve disorders -- and it’s everywhere.
Chlorpyrifos is the chemical industry’s dirtiest secret, topping sales everywhere, but kept from the media spotlight. And it’s no surprise — it traces back to nerve agents developed in a Nazi lab! Now it’s in our food, air and drinking water. Read more |
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Coca-Cola is world's biggest plastics polluter – again
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November 9, 2019 - The Guardian
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ROUND THE WORLD LEG 1 IS COMPLETE – CREW ARRIVE IN THE AZORES |
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October 21, 2019
Well done to our leg one crew who have just arrived in Ponta Delgada, in São Miguel dos Açores on board S.V. TravelEdge on Monday 21st October having completed the first leg of eXXpedition Round the World - Leg 1 Plymouth to Azores with Rothy's.
They will take part in a series of land-based research and community outreach activities around Ponta Delgada before a new crew departs on Leg 2: North Atlantic Gyre from Azores to Antigua with Copernicus Marine Service on the 28th October 2019. LEARN MORE
They will take part in a series of land-based research and community outreach activities around Ponta Delgada before a new crew departs on Leg 2: North Atlantic Gyre from Azores to Antigua with Copernicus Marine Service on the 28th October 2019. LEARN MORE
Greta Thurberg blasts world leaders in emotional speech
September 26, 2019 - Global News
Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg on Monday opened the United Nations Climate Action Summit with an angry condemnation of world leaders for failing to take strong measures to combat climate change.
Climate change is the most important life issue today - Dan Horan
September 5, 2019 - NCR
In recent decades there has been some nasty infighting among Catholics who argue about which life issue is the most important, especially in guiding one's political choices. Some groups — often the loudest — say abortion is the single most important life issue. Others say euthanasia or assisted suicide is the most important. Still others, in keeping with the church's longstanding tradition of the sanctity of all life, say that we cannot single out one such issue but recognize that as Catholics we must maintain a consistent ethic of life, an ethical outlook sometimes referred to as the "seamless garment" approach...
A glacier lagoon is seen in southern Iceland in July 2017. (CNS/Thomson Reuters Foundation/Thin Lei Win)
Instead of working to solve the crisis ...Trump and his administration are actively exacerbating it. According to a New York Times report published last week, the Trump Administration has "rolled back" 84 environmental rules and policies so far.
... While I agree with the intellectual and moral integrity of the consistent ethic of life principle, which upholds that every human life — born and unborn — is inherently valuable, dignified, and must be protected, we live in a time in which there is now a more fundamental issue that threatens all life: climate change. For this reason, it seems to me dangerously shortsighted to propose directing our attention, argumentative energies, and financial resources to any singular anthropocentric ethical issue. The stakes are too high for us now to be so myopic.
Global climate change threatens every life now and poses an existential danger to the very condition of the possibility for future life on this planet. If we are called to be moral agents guided by a seamless garment approach, as I believe we are, then climate change is the body on which such a garment hangs.The preservation of particular human lives is predicated on the future of the planet and delicate ecosystems on it that make life possible at all. .... READ ALL
... While I agree with the intellectual and moral integrity of the consistent ethic of life principle, which upholds that every human life — born and unborn — is inherently valuable, dignified, and must be protected, we live in a time in which there is now a more fundamental issue that threatens all life: climate change. For this reason, it seems to me dangerously shortsighted to propose directing our attention, argumentative energies, and financial resources to any singular anthropocentric ethical issue. The stakes are too high for us now to be so myopic.
Global climate change threatens every life now and poses an existential danger to the very condition of the possibility for future life on this planet. If we are called to be moral agents guided by a seamless garment approach, as I believe we are, then climate change is the body on which such a garment hangs.The preservation of particular human lives is predicated on the future of the planet and delicate ecosystems on it that make life possible at all. .... READ ALL
Header image by Patrick Brinksma
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contact@franciscanvoicecanada.com
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contact@franciscanvoicecanada.com
The Story of Bottled WaterJune 24, 2019
This is an older video, but it is still so relevant today that we thought we should post it now. Take note of the suggestions made; a time for action. (8:04 min)
Billion Dollar BuyoutReport – Billion Dollar Buyout: How Canadian taxpayers bought a climate-killing pipeline and Trump’s trade deal supports it
May 27, 2019 - FAO UN
Forests do more for us than we realize. They clean our water and filter our air, and they provide food, medicine and fuel for more than a billion people worldwide.
Here are 7 ways how and some of their best kept secrets:
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Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth's natural life
Scientists reveal 1 million species at risk of extinction in damning UN report
Human society is in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, the world’s leading scientists have warned, as they announced the results of the most thorough planetary health check ever undertaken.
From coral reefs flickering out beneath the oceans to rainforests desiccatinginto savannahs, nature is being destroyed at a rate tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10m years, according to the UN globalassessment report. The biomass of wild mammals has fallen by 82%, natural ecosystems have lost about half their area and a million species are at risk of extinction – all largely as a result of human actions, said the study, compiled over three years by more than 450 scientists and diplomats. Read the full article which has many facts and photos. Protect Our Species on Endangered Species Day!
If we care about plastic waste, why won’t we stop drinking bottled water?
Where Your Recycled Plastic Ends Up - Trashing the PlanetApril 27, 2019 - The Story of Stuff Project
Call on Canada to become part of the solution
Canada warming at twice the global rate!April 4, 2019 - CBC National
In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report stressing the urgency for nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to a level achieving a limit of 1.5 degrees C.
Nations are far behind in achieving this level and emissions are due to increase again this year. Everyone feels the effects of the warming temperatures with the Arctic and Antarctic noticing significant changes. As a nation, Canada is warming the fastest according to recent news. (Felician Sister of N. America)
SumOfUs pushes Ottawa to speed up plan to ban bee-killing pesticides
Earth Day 2019: Protect Our SpeciesJanuary 30, 2019 - Earth Day Network
Earth Day (April 22) 2019 marks the 49th anniversary of the first Earth Day. We are excited to announce that our theme this year is Protect Our Species!
Nature's gifts to our planet are the millions of species that we know and love. Many more species remain to be discovered. Unfortunately, the world is facing the greatest rate of extinction since the extinction of the dinosaurs more than 60 million years ago. The impacts are far-reaching. Here are some quick facts on the current wave of extinction and additional background information about this problem. All living things have value in and of themselves and each one plays a unique role in the complex web of life. Earth Day Network has developed Toolkits that contain ideas for actions and resources to help you and your communities participate in Earth Day 2019's Protect Our Species campaign. LEARN MORE
Plastic Production Pollutes Small Town
December 2, 2018 - The Story of Stuff
A mini-documentary exploring the connection between plastic and fossil fuels?
TELL CANADA YOU WANT TO END PLASTIC WASTE
November 19, 2018 - environmental defence
Next week, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial environment ministers are meeting in Ottawa to finalize their national plan to fight plastic pollution. It’s vital that the plan is both ambitious and enforceable if we’re going to improve our terrible 11 per cent recycling rate for plastic waste. Sign the petition now to make sure they know you want a plastic waste free environment by 2025. Learn more
CBC TV, The Weekly, looks at the Glyphosate (Round-up) concern
60% of world's wildlife has been wiped out since 1970!!October 30, 2018 - WWF & CBC
Well over half the world's population of vertebrates, from fish to birds to mammals, have been wiped out in the past four decades, says a new report from the World Wildlife Fund.
Between 1970 and 2014, there was 60 per cent decline, on average, among 16,700 wildlife populations around the world according to the 2018 edition of the Living Planet Report released Monday. "We've had a loss of nearly two-thirds, on average, of our wild species," said James Snider, vice-president of science, research and innovation for WWF-Canada. WWF News Release (Digital Journal) "The magnitude of that should be eye opening… We really are reaching a point where we're likely to see species go extinct. That's true in Canada and abroad."
What took 100's of millions of years to create man is destroying in a couple of 100 years. Government inaction is no longer an option.
Let us all speak up! Learn what you can do and act! - FVC Bishops' Urge Strong Action on Climate ChangeOctober 29, 2018 - CRUX
On Friday, at the closing of the Synod on the Youth, the presidents of Bishops Conferences in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Europe signed a joint statement calling for bold action from governments to keep global warming below 1.5C. This statement was directed towards world leaders before the Conference of Parties in Poland this December. Based on the principles of Laudato Si’, this statement highlights that climate change is an issue of intergenerational justice, human dignity and human rights. READ THE CRUX ARTICLE --- Read the Joint Statement
Was this statement signed by Canadian and American Bishops, and if not, why not? - FVC UN report on global warming carries life-or-death warning
October 8, 2018 - CBC News
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issues gloomy report at meeting in Incheon, South Korea
Preventing an extra single degree of heat could make a life-or-death difference in the next few decades for multitudes of people and ecosystems on this fast-warming planet, an international panel of scientists reported Sunday. But they provide little hope the world will rise to the challenge. In the 728-page document, the UN organization detailed how Earth's weather, health and ecosystems would be in better shape if the world's leaders could somehow limit future human-caused warming to just a half degree Celsius from now, instead of the globally agreed-upon goal of one degree. Among other things:
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